The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-05-26

trouble on themselves, 1 reply, Wnere L
give ten prayers for the innocent who are
suffering will give twenty prayers for the
guilty who are suffering.
The fisherman, when he sees a vessel
dashing into the breakers, comes out from
his hut and wraps the warmest tiannels
around those who are most chilled and
most bruised and most battered in the
wreck; and want you to know that these
vicious poor have had two shipwrecks-
shipwreck of the body, shipwreck of the
eternity. Pity, by all means, the innocent
who are suffering, but pity more the guilty.
Pass on through the alley. Open the
door. "O," you say, ait is locked" No,
it is not locked It has never been locked.
No burglar would be tempted to go in
there to steal anything. The door is never
locked. Only a broken chair stands
against the door. Shove it back. Go in.
Strike match. Now look. Beastliness
and rags. See those glaring eyeballs. Be
careful now what you say. Do not utter
any suspicion, if you value your life. What
is that red mark on the wall? tits the mark
of a murderers hand!
Look at those eyes rising up out of the
darkness and out from the straw in the
corner, coming toward you, and as they
come near you your light goes out. Strike
another match. Ali this is babe, not like
those beautiful children presented in bap-
tism. This little one never smiled; il never
will smile. A flower flung on an awfully
barren beach. OIL heavenly Shepherd,
fold that little one in Thy arms. Wrap
around you your shawl or your coat
tighter, for the cold wind sweeps through.
Strike another match. Ahl is it possible
that that young woman's Scared and
bruised face was ever looked into by mater
nal tenderness? Utter no scorn. Utter no
harsh word. No ray of hope ever will
dawn on that brow. But the light has gone
out. Do not strike another Light. 1t
would be mockery to kindle another light
in such place as that. Pass out and pass
down the street. Our cities of Brooklyn
and New York and all our great cities are
full of such homes, and the worst time the
third watch of the night.
Do you know it is in this third watch of
the night that criminals do their worst
work2 1t is the criminals watch.
At $3.50 o'clock you will find them in the
drinking saloon, but toward II they go to
their garrets, they get out their tools, then
they start on the street. Watching on
either side for the police, they go to their
work Of darkness. This is burglar, and
the false key will soon touch the store lock.
This is an incendiary, and before morning
there will be light or the sky and a cry
of "Fire! fre" This is an assassin, and
tomorrow morning there will be dead
body in one of the vacant lots. During the
daytime these villains in our cities lounge
about, some asleep and some awake, but
when the third watch of the night arrives,
their eye keen, their brain cool, their arm
strong, their foot feet to fly or pursue, they
are ready.
Many Of these poor creatures were
brought up in that way. They were born
in a thieves garret. Their childish toy was
a burglars dark lantern. The first thing
they remember was their mother bandaging
the brow of their father, struck by the
police club. They began by robbing boys
pockets, and now they have come to dig the
underground passage TO the cellar of the
bank and are preparing to blast the gold
vault.
Just so long as there are neglected chill
dren on the street just so long we will have
these desperadoes. Some one, wishing to
make good Christian point and to quote
passage Of Scripture, expecting TO get q
Scriptural passage in answer, said to one
of these poor lads, cast out and wretched:
"When your father and your mother for
sake you, who then will take you upP" And
the boy said: "The perlice! the perlice!"
In the third watch of the night gambling
does its worst wQEk. What though the
hours be slipping away, and though the
wife be waiting in the cheerless home?
Stir up the fire. Bring on more drinks.
Put up more stakes. That commercial
house that only little while ago put out a
- |,
wrecked on q gamblers table. There will
leak. A member of Congress gambled with
a member elect and won Sl2O,0OO. The
old way of getting living is so slow. The
old way of getting fortune is so stupid.
Come, let us toss up and see who shall
have it. And so the work goes on, from
the wheeling wretches pitching pennies in
rum grocery up to the millionaire gam
bier in the stock market.
In the third watch of the night pass down
the streets of these cities, and you hear the
click of the dice and the sharp, keen stroke
of the ball on the billiard table. At these
places merchant princes dismount, and
Legislators, tired of making laws, take
respite in breaking them. All classes of
people are robbed by this crime-the i'm.
porter of foreign silks and the dealer in
Chatham street pocket handkerchiefs. The
clerks of the store take hand after the
shutters are put up, and the officers of the
court while away their time while the jury
is out.
In Baden Baden, when that city was the
greatest of all gambling places on earth, it
was no unusual thing the next morning, in
the woods around about the city, to find the
suspended bodies of suicides. Whatever
be the splendor of surroundings, there is
no excuse for this crime. The thunders of
eternal destruction roll in the deep rumble
of that gambling tenpin alley, and as men
come out to join the long procession of
sin, all the drums of death beat the dead
march Of thousand souls.
In one year, in the city of New York,
there were $7,0C0,000 sacrificed at the
gaming table. Perhaps some of your
friends have been smitten of this sin.
Perhaps some of you have been smitten by
Perhaps there may be stranger in the
house this morning come from some of
the hotels. Look out for those agents of
iniquity who tarry around about the hotels
and ask you: "Would you like to see the
cityp" "Yes." "Have you ever been in
that splendid building up town." "No."
Then the villain will undertake TO show
you what he calls the "lions" and the "ele-
plants" and after young man, through
morbid curiosity or through badness of
soul, has seen the "lions" and the "ele-
plants, he will be on enchanted ground.
Look out for these men who move around
the hotels with sleek hats-always sleek
hats-and patronizing air, and unaccount-
able interest about your welfare and on.
tertainment. You are fool If you cam
not see through it. They want your
money.
In Chestnut street, Philadelphia, while
was living in that city, an incident occurred
which was familiar to us there. In Chest
nut street young man went into gam
bling saloon, lost all his property, then
blew his brains out, and before the blood
was washed from the floor by the maids
the comrades were shutting cards again.
" IN. =. II u.